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Seems like madness to me. The Soyuz is very well proven at this point. I'd happily hop straight on board the next one even after this incident, which is more th

Seems like madness to me. The Soyuz is very well proven at this point. I'd happily hop straight on board the next one even after this incident, which is more than I can say for SpaceX - don't get me wrong, I have every faith in them and am personally a big fan, but the numbers are heavily in Soyuz' favour.

CompelTechnic 8y ago
Even if the design is well-tested, there may be a new process issue in the rocket's construction that is undiagnosed. Maybe there is a new person on the assembly line that doesn't know not to pinch o-rings when assembling fuel tubing? Maybe a swaging tool has worn out to the point that it is causing leaks? Maybe the vendor who supplies body panel rivets got a bad batch of aluminum? There are so may possible situations that it is not worth risking launches or lives over until a root cause has been found.
- solarkraft 8y ago
  I do doubt those scenarios. The other capsules have all flown very well over the years and this one's safety system worked perfectly well.
  - Latteland 8y ago
    First let me agree that spaceflight is hard, even the billions that NASA spends has led to so many disasters. The problem there is with manufacturing and quality control. They've had endless problems with other recent rockets and it's natural to think their qualty problems hit this time. Spaceflight is one of the few area where the us and Russia are cooperating and I hope this isn't the end. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/10/200775748/report-upside-down-sensors-toppled-russian-rocket https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/10/200775748...
mikejb 8y ago
I would agree for the most part. I also would want to see a successful DM1 flight before hopping aboard a crewed SpaceX flight. But with recent events around Soyuz I'd be slightly hesitant there as well. A year ago I would have fully agreed with you, but the infamous drilled hole, now this - I'd at least wait for the investigation to return a reason of failure to be able to determine whether I'd feel safe. If it's again human error during construction, I probably wouldn't get on board.
qaq 8y ago
You have to realize that USSR and early Russia launches and now are two different animals. Soviet era specialists either died or retired or are old and about to retire the new gen. are not even remotely comparable plus all corroding corruption is running rampant.
- madeuptempacct 8y ago
  This is true. The USSR, at one point, had (by far) the best education system in the world. Now it's nowhere near being in the top 5.

CompelTechnic 8y ago

Even if the design is well-tested, there may be a new process issue in the rocket's construction that is undiagnosed. Maybe there is a new person on the assembly line that doesn't know not to pinch o-rings when assembling fuel tubing? Maybe a swaging tool has worn out to the point that it is causing leaks? Maybe the vendor who supplies body panel rivets got a bad batch of aluminum? There are so may possible situations that it is not worth risking launches or lives over until a root cause has been found.

solarkraft 8y ago
I do doubt those scenarios. The other capsules have all flown very well over the years and this one's safety system worked perfectly well.
- Latteland 8y ago
  First let me agree that spaceflight is hard, even the billions that NASA spends has led to so many disasters. The problem there is with manufacturing and quality control. They've had endless problems with other recent rockets and it's natural to think their qualty problems hit this time. Spaceflight is one of the few area where the us and Russia are cooperating and I hope this isn't the end. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/10/200775748/report-upside-down-sensors-toppled-russian-rocket https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/10/200775748...

mikejb 8y ago

I would agree for the most part. I also would want to see a successful DM1 flight before hopping aboard a crewed SpaceX flight. But with recent events around Soyuz I'd be slightly hesitant there as well. A year ago I would have fully agreed with you, but the infamous drilled hole, now this - I'd at least wait for the investigation to return a reason of failure to be able to determine whether I'd feel safe. If it's again human error during construction, I probably wouldn't get on board.

qaq 8y ago

You have to realize that USSR and early Russia launches and now are two different animals. Soviet era specialists either died or retired or are old and about to retire the new gen. are not even remotely comparable plus all corroding corruption is running rampant.

madeuptempacct 8y ago
This is true. The USSR, at one point, had (by far) the best education system in the world. Now it's nowhere near being in the top 5.